Russia President Vladimir Putin makes a rare visit to North Korea, an old ally – Daily News

By KIM TONG-HYUNG

SEOUL, South Korea — Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in North Korea early on Wednesday, after saying the 2 international locations need to cooperate carefully to beat U.S.-led sanctions within the face of intensifying confrontations with Washington.

Putin was met at Pyongyang’s airport by North Korean chief Kim Jong Un. They shook palms and embraced, and Kim later joined Putin in his automobile to personally information him to Pyongyang’s Kumsusan State Visitor Home, North Korea’s official Korean Central Information Company stated. The company described their assembly as a historic occasion that demonstrates the “invincibility and sturdiness” of the 2 nations’ friendship and unity.

Putin, making his first journey to North Korea in 24 years, stated in feedback that appeared in its state media hours earlier than he landed that he appreciates the nation’s agency help of his military actions in Ukraine. The Kremlin launched a full-scale invasion of the neighboring nation in 2022.

He stated the international locations would proceed to “resolutely oppose” what he described as Western ambitions “to hinder the institution of a multipolar world order primarily based on justice, mutual respect for sovereignty, contemplating one another’s pursuits.”

Putin’s go to comes amid growing concerns about an arms association through which Pyongyang supplies Moscow with badly wanted munitions to gasoline Russia’s war in Ukraine in change for financial help and know-how transfers that might improve the risk posed by Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile program.

Within the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, the streets had been adorned with portraits of Putin and Russian flags. A banner on a constructing stated: “We warmly welcome the President of the Russian Federation.”

Putin additionally stated in his printed remarks that Russia and North Korea will develop commerce and fee programs “that aren’t managed by the West” and collectively oppose sanctions towards the international locations, which he described as “unlawful, unilateral restrictions.”

North Korea is beneath heavy U.N. Safety Council financial sanctions over its nuclear weapons and missile applications, whereas Russia can also be grappling with sanctions by the US and its Western companions over its aggression in Ukraine.

Putin stated the international locations can even develop cooperation in tourism, tradition and schooling.

Earlier than heading to North Korea, Putin traveled to Yakutsk, a metropolis in japanese Russia, the place he met regional Gov. Aisen Nikolayev, and acquired briefings on know-how and defense-related tasks. He additionally met with younger professionals working in Russia’s Far East.

Putin is being accompanied by a number of high officers, together with Deputy Prime Minister Denis Mantrurov, Protection Minister Andrei Belousov and Overseas Minister Sergey Lavrov, in keeping with his international coverage adviser, Yuri Ushakov. He stated a variety of paperwork shall be signed in the course of the go to, presumably together with an settlement on a complete strategic partnership.

U.S. and South Korean officers say navy, financial and different exchanges between North Korea and Russia have sharply elevated since Kim met Putin in September within the Russian Far East, their first since 2019.

U.S. and South Korean officers accuse the North of offering Russia with artillery, missiles and different navy gear to be used in Ukraine, presumably in return for key navy applied sciences and help. Each Pyongyang and Moscow deny accusations about North Korean weapons transfers, which might violate a number of U.N. Safety Council sanctions that Russia beforehand endorsed.

Together with China, Russia has offered political cowl for Kim’s persevering with efforts to advance his nuclear arsenal, repeatedly blocking U.S.-led efforts to impose recent U.N. sanctions on the North over its weapons assessments.

In March, a Russian veto at the United Nations ended monitoring of U.N. sanctions towards North Korea over its nuclear program, prompting Western accusations that Moscow is looking for to keep away from scrutiny because it buys weapons from Pyongyang to be used in Ukraine. U.S. and South Korean officers have stated they’re discussing choices for a brand new mechanism for monitoring the North.

Earlier this 12 months, Putin sent Kim a high-end Aurus Senat limousine, which he had proven to the North Korean chief once they met in September. Observers stated the cargo violated a U.N. decision banning the provision of luxurious gadgets to North Korea.

In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated Putin’s go to to North Korea illustrates how Russia tries, “in desperation, to develop and to strengthen relations with international locations that may present it with what it must proceed the warfare of aggression that it began towards Ukraine.”

“North Korea is offering important munitions to Russia … and different weapons to be used in Ukraine. Iran has been offering weaponry, together with drones, which have been used towards civilians and civilian infrastructure,” Blinken informed reporters following a gathering with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday.

Stoltenberg reiterated considerations concerning the “potential help that Russia supplies to North Korea in terms of supporting their missile and nuclear applications.”

Lim Soosuk, spokesperson of South Korea’s Overseas Ministry, stated Seoul has been stressing to Moscow that any cooperation between Russia and North Korea should not “proceed in a path that violates U.N. Safety Council resolutions or undermines peace and stability within the area.”

Tensions on the Korean Peninsulas are at their highest level in years, with the tempo of each Kim’s weapons tests and combined military exercises involving the US, South Korea and Japan intensifying in a tit-for-tat cycle. The Koreas even have engaged in Chilly Struggle-style psychological warfare that concerned North Korea dropping tons of trash on the South with balloons, and the South broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda with its loudspeakers.

South Korea’s navy stated troopers fired warning photographs to repel North Korean troopers who temporarily crossed the land border Tuesday, apparently in error, for the second time this month.